Publication:

An investigation of the factors affecting mathematics performance in secondary schools in Thanu location Mukurwe-ini district Nyeri county.

The study focused on the factors that contribute to poor performance in mathematics in Thanu Location, Mukurwe-ini District Nyeri County for the past few years. It is out of the keen awareness of the maths as the most serviceable science subject to all disciplines and fields of human work and study, a need to explore on causes of its poor performance was paramount. This research focused mainly on factors such as teachers, training, experience, changeover, adequacy, workload, and teaching methods. Availability of teachers, reference books, pupil’s text books, sufficiency of Pupils’ books, reasons for difficulties in understanding contents in mathematics books, assessment Frequency, syllabus coverage and in-service courses. The ministry of Education and other stakeholders have tried to tackle the problem in various ways which still persists. The researcher collected the data from sample of 6 schools drawn from a population of 10 schools. A total of 6 principals, 10 mathematics teachers and fifty students were used as respondents. The research design was a survey. The survey was conducted on private primary schools. The researcher made use of questionnaires for the purpose of data collection. The research was meant for ten schools, but sample sizes of six schools were picked using random sampling method. Each sample school was represented by its principal, mathematics teacher(s), and ten students. The researcher used questionnaire which were filled by respondents to make her analysis and recommendations. In answering the questionnaire, the researcher was of great help in alleviating poor performance in mathematics among the secondary schools in the Location District and the country as a whole. The research data was analyzed both qualitatively and quantitatively to arrive at the various factors leading to poor performance in mathematics.